BENSON EVERETT LEGG

            District Judge Benson Everett Legg was born on June 8, 1947, in Baltimore, Maryland.  Judge Legg attended Princeton University and graduated magna cum laude in 1970, with a B.A. degree in English literature.  He pursued his law degree at the University of Virginia School of Law, achieving his J.D. in 1973.  While at the University of Virginia School of Law, Judge Legg served on the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review from 1971-73, and he was a member of the Order of Coif.  During the summer of 1971, Judge Legg worked at the Baltimore law firm of Venable, Baetjer and Howard.  After his second year of law school, he worked as a summer associate at Goodwin, Procter and Hoar in Boston.

            Following law school, Judge Legg served as law clerk to the Honorable Frank A. Kaufman of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, from 1973-74.  In 1975, Judge Legg returned to Venable, Baetjer and Howard as an associate, becoming partner in 1982.  On May 15, 1991, Judge Legg was nominated by President Bush to a vacant seat on the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.  Confirmed by the Senate on September 12, 1991, Judge Legg was commissioned on September 16, 1991.  On January 6, 2003, Judge Legg was elevated to Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.

            Admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1973, Judge Legg was active in bar association work.  He served on the business torts litigation committee of the American Bar Association’s Litigation Section.  He was chair of the economics of litigation committee of the Maryland State Bar Association.  In addition, he served the Baltimore City Bar Association as vice-chair and chair of the continuing legal education committee and was on the executive council from 1987-88.

            A faculty member of the Maryland Institute for the Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers (MICPEL), Judge Legg was also an instructor at the Trial Advocacy Institute at the University of Virginia.  He authored a Virginia Law Review article, entitled “Reliance Electric and 16(b) Litigation” in 1972, co-authored the Maryland Appellate Practice, Rules and Commentary with Forms in 1988, and contributed to the ABA’s Model Jury Instructions for Business Tort Litigation (1988).

            Judge Legg has been a member of many professional associations, such as the Princeton University Secondary Schools Committee; Advisory Board of the National Aquarium in Baltimore (1987 to 2003); Trustee and Member of the executive and financial committees of the Baltimore Zoological Society (1990 to 2004); Member of the executive committee of the Gilman School Alumni Association; and Serjeants Inn.  He also served on the Board of Directors of the Central Maryland Chapter of the American Red Cross, from 1979 to 1988.